When there is diseased tissue present in a hollow viscera (organ tissue, etc.) such as the intestine or stomach in the field of gastroenterological surgery, it is well understood that a restorative procedure is necessary following resection of that diseased site, in order to recreate a continuous digestive tract through end-to-end (end-to-end anastomosis), end-to-side (end-to-side anastomosis), or side-to-side (side-to-side anastomosis) stapling and anastomosis of the remaining normal regions of the hollow viscera.
With regard to anastomotic techniques from among the restorative procedures for the aforementioned tubular biological tissue, the techniques of inverting anastomosis, in which the cut ends of the tubular biological tissue are inverted and stapled intralumenally, and everting anastomosis, in which the cut ends of the tubular biological tissue are everted and stapled extralumenally, are conventionally known. Conventionally, inverting anastomosis has more typically been carried out from the perspective of sanitation and prevention of adhesions. Further, in the case of an inverting anastomosis of the digestive tract, encircling automatic anastomotic apparatuses, in which the staples, i.e. the stapling members, are arrayed in an encircling disposition, are the first choice (see Patent Reference Document No. 1, for example).
However, when employing the automatic anastomotic apparatus disclosed in Patent Reference Document No. 1, it is necessary to insert the main body of the automatic anastomotic apparatus into the lumen of the digestive organ and to insert the anvil head into the digestive organ on the opposite side to be anastomosed. Because the main body is inserted into a non-sterile area and the cut ends of the digestive organ are in an open state, there is a possibility of contamination of the surgical field as a result. Further, not only may surgical time be prolonged because the procedure sequence is complicated and requires considerable time, but there is also the possibility of post-surgical stricture, a well known complication when employing an encircling automatic anastomotic apparatus.
There has been a demand for everting anastomosis techniques in order to resolve the contamination and post-surgical stricture issues that may occur when using the aforementioned encircling automatic anastomotic apparatus. This has resulted in the disclosure of anastomotic apparatuses as a means for efficiently carrying out everting anastomosis in a short time period (see Patent Reference Document No. 2, for example).